A History of Hacienda de Guru Ram Das Ashram

By the time I arrived in 1974, the ashram had outgrown the little house and the single men had moved into the dilapidated barn. In the barn, there were no major renovations, no heat and no privacy. But none of the men were spending much time in the barn because there was plenty of work to be done and no time to rest. The ashram had expanded into a couple other small neighboring properties, and the land had swelled to 20 acres. A cute little building was bought in 1974 for the Siri Singh Sahib to live in, nestled into a grove of tall and shady cottonwood trees on the banks of the Santa Cruz River. It was named the “Gold House” because of its bright yellow stucco. the Siri Singh Sahib and Bibiji did stay there a couple times, but then in 1977 it became a dormitory for their two younger children, Kulbir and Kamaljit, and other school children who came from all over the country to live in Espanola and attend McCurdy High School.

At Hacienda de Guru Ram Das, the drama of religious art was unfolding. The sadhana room held an ethereal mural depicting the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe surrounded by the ten Sikh Gurus, scenes from their lives, the Golden Temple, and the devout Don Diego on his knees beholding the lovely Lady of Guadalupe. Completed by the celebrated artist Edward O’Brien in 1975, this outstanding work of art is today the east wall of the Siri Singhasan e Khalsa Gurdwara.

Mr. O’Brien had been well known to the Sikhs since the early days of the Guru Ram Das Ashram. In his studio in Santa Fe, he had many moving religious discussions with them and was inspired by their devotional and energetic approach to life. Through the process of his own internal growth and path of self-discovery, he conceived a work of art that combined his love for the Lady of Guadalupe with the lives and ethics of the Sikh Gurus. He painted one version in 1972 and gifted it to the Siri Singh Sahib. This hangs today in the Secretariat in Los Angeles. He started the mural in 1973 in his studio in Santa Fe, and moved it along with himself to the ashram in 1974. He lived in the building we now know as the archive building, which was named Shanti Nivas. The mural was finished in the spring of 1975, and he had planned to travel to India in the coming fall to see the Golden Temple for himself. To the deep sorrow of the ashram, Edward O’Brien died of a heart attack at home one week after the mural was finished.

In the spring of 1975, a rustic ranch was purchased as a Sikh Dharma training center and guest house for Sikh Dharma International. Sitting under three beautiful cottonwood trees on over 20 acres of fields, “the Ranch” was soon to be the home of the Siri Singh Sahib whenever he visited Espanola – which now was about four times each year. Behind the ranch house, a simple geodesic dome was constructed as a private meditation room for the Siri Singh Sahib. This unique structure was designed and built by the humble hands of Guru Meher Singh – husband of Guru Meher Kaur and father of Guru Darbar Singh. With love and devotion, he worked into the late hours of the night anxiously trying to complete the building before the Siri Singh Sahib returned to New Mexico for Summer Solstice. With the whole ashram at work, they created it as a labor of love. It was in that dome, twenty-nine years later, that the Siri Singh Sahib breathed his last breath on this earth.

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